By Haruna Salami
The Senate on Monday urged the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Muhammad Musa Bello to provide counterpart funding for ongoing projects to avoid the problem of abandoned projects.
Chairman, Senate Committee on Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Tolu Odebiyi gave the advice during the committee’s oversight function to some roads and water projects in the territory.
Odebiyi said even though the projects the committee visited were very “commendable”, his concern was that they were time sensitive projects, which must be completed as sheduled .
“If you look at the valuation of our exchange rate right now, I think the sooner we quickly commit our counterpart funding and finish these projects the better, otherwise we may run the risk of none completion due to funding”.
He urged his colleagues in the committee and the entire Senate to take “a critical look at the projects and give the support and priority they deserve”.
The Committee Chairman said what they were doing was to catalogue what FCT has embarked upon, what they hope to complete in the next few months left in the life of this administration and what their priority projects are since they will present their budget to the Senate soon for consideration.
According to him, “obviously we don’t have infinite amount of funds, so that we can know which funds will be made available for which project”.
He commended the FCT Administration for the volume of work being done, particularly the Greater Abuja Water Works.
FCT Minister, Muhammad Musa Bello, in his remarks, assured the committee that in terms of water treatment capacity in the city, they have excess now, adding that distribution has been the problem, which is being currently addressed across the city.
